The Unknown Ties that Bond
by TheBeldam27
Summary: One of those Stories where you ask, what if there was another one of Gantu's species that was born on earth, had no knowledge of her origins aside from a wrecked spaceship, and might be the only being to reform Gantu? Maybe even, something else?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One: At the Beginning**

From what I have read through books, stories, and legends is that the beginning if the story isn't always an exciting one, sometimes it's not even a happy one. There are many who had been given a rough life all the way to the day they were conceived, a life they never asked for to begin with. It's hard, sometimes it's just to hard to rise above it and move on, to even dare to keep going.

However, It is only when we pursue through the pages that we uncover more about the story, more pieces of the puzzle, that we come to the conclusion, the ending, and our lives are truly touched in ways we cannot describe, making us not the same as we were when we first picked up the book, when we first opened ourselves to the potential within. Here is where we start our story. Our Journey.

* * *

Failed, humiliated, and now a retired former captain of the galactic federation alliance! Surely, nothing about this situation could get any worse.

"Gantu, aboard the ship, we are leaving." The Grand Councilwoman replied, boarding the galactic spaceship, without the experiment.

All that hardship, wasted just to exile the abomination on this heap of rock in the middle of the ocean. Gantu boarded the ship and headed towards the window; at the very least, he could see what the island would look like before the trog destroys it; then he would know that retiring him was a false move. As they ascended into the sky, Gantu caught something just at the peak of the island's mountain.

It was fairly small due to the distance, yet very easy to spot because of the distinctive white coloring. The ship came to level with the mountain, just seconds before going into hyperdrive.

Gantu's jaw dropped and he pressed up against the glass. Staring right back at him was a female version of his species, jaw similarly dropped and deep blue eyes locked on his! She seemed every bit as shocked as he was to see her; he would've mistaken her for a worker on the ship that got lost except for one detail- she was white as star plasma!

On his planet, everyone had the distinct dark blue and/or purple coloring with the normal coloring of either brown, blue, or green eyes. Never had there been in recorded history of someone born on his planet with sheer white skin. It just wasn't possible.

Before he could even give it a second thought to process what he'd just seen, the ship took off into a hyper jump, the view from the window now resembling the familiar infinity of stars and nearby planets.

"Former Captain Gantu, are you quite done sightseeing?" The Grand Councilwoman, who had been quietly standing aside the window for sometime, spoke up. "What were you staring at?"

Gantu turned to answer but paused. He was a _retired_ captain of the galactic federation; he didn't have to tell her anything anymore.

"Nothing, just thinking is all."

"I hope it was about when you wish to turn in your badge; you are to clean out your captains quarters and leave for your home world immediately. I have already contacted your father on the matter; he was nothing short of appalled."

Gantu bit back a stingy reply and headed toward a transporter unit.

He looked back at the window where he saw the off-color.

"We'll meet again next time, abomination!"

* * *

 _One year later..._

"Oh, ha, hi!"

Stitch practiced saying hello in front of the mirror as friendly as he could. Today's trip to the beach wasn't as smooth as he had hoped it would be; probably shouldn't have pulled out the chainsaw to slice the pineapple.

A regular hatchet or a non-electrical saw would've worked just fine, he was just trying to make speedy work of the job. Very sloppy.

Stitch wouldn't admit it; but sometimes it felt kinda lonely being the only experiment with no cousins to hang with. Lilo and Nani were great to have as an ohana, but it wasn't the same as having actual family members with blood relations.

Maybe Jumba would make him feel better; or give him another model of a city to "destroy".

"Jumba? Me no have cousins!"

"No cousins?" Jumba then began to explain how he only made stitch and that as he said sometime ago, he had no "cousins" and like him, was all alone in great big universe.

Well that wasn't what he had in mind; stitch made mental note to build sand castle city to destroy and blow off some steam.

Suddenly, there was a big rumbling noise coming from outside. Pleakley, dressed in Nani's clothes, obliviously walked up to the door; thinking it was the pizza delivery guy he called and opened it.

"Gantu!" He slammed the door and pulled down the shutters.

... _ding dong._

"He's come back for stitch!" Lilo grabs stitch and heads for the kitchen. Jumba, meanwhile, returns to his study.

"Where are you going!?" A spazzed Pleakley calls out.

"I have to take care of thing." Jumba, fully aware of the situation, quickly head for his invention tucked safely behind a cloth.

Pleakley barges up the stairs and looks suspiciously at the object.

"What is that?"

Jumba plays coy and replies, "... What is What?"

Crash!

Lilo's screech can be heard coming from the back of the house.

"You can't have stitch, you big dummy!"

"And he's fat!" Stitch said in his alien gibberish.

Gantu sneered at the comment about his weight.

"I'm not fat! And I'm not here for the failed experiment six-two-six." He fired a net at stitch and proceeded with his mission.

"Where's Jumba?" He moved from the back of the house and began rounding the windows; not very amused at the drawing lilo made of him.

Very funny.

He made is way to the second level roof, peeling back the shingles.

He found Jumba innocently knitting away like he didn't just hear him come in.

"Dr. Jumba Jukiba." Gantu states in his usual interrogation manner.

"Ah Gantu, have not seen in long time." Jumba brushes him off as if he were just passing through, keeping a cool head as to not give away

"Where are they?"

"They? Who's they?" Jumba coyly asked.

"The other six-hundred and twenty-five experiments!"

"Oh. So sorry, you must have me confused with _other_ evil genius scientist."

Gantu ignored his "playing stupid" act and observed a blue orb sticking out in the middle of the floor.

"What have we here?" Gantu held out the pod in plain sight of the ex-evil scientist.

Jumba's front faltered but he quickly rebuffed. "Uh, that is, eh, ping-pong ball. It it's earth sport, like tennis but tiny."

The jig was up. Gantu grabbed Jumba so they were eye to eye.

"You're a bad liar Jumba; Where are the other experiments!?"

"I never discuss evil genius work with big dummies!"

"Then perhaps you'd like to discuss it with your old business partner, Dr. Hamsterviel!"

Jumba gaped at the name,"Hamsterviel is, alive?"

"And he wants his experiments back!" Gantu stomped over to his ship and placed the former scientist into the holding capsule and prepared to board his ship.

As he moved toward the front of his ship; Gantu felt a gaze from behind him. His hand on his blaster, Gantu peered about quickly but saw no one around; of course the trog and the earth girl could've been the culprit, but their hands were still tied at the back of the house.

Maybe it was just a bird.

Gantu boarded and took off with his prisoner in tow. Lilo and stitch had already taken the initiative to chase after him in Jumba and Pleakley's ship. Safely hidden in the under brush, a curious pair of deep blue eyes observed the whole scene play out.

' _Could it be? Is this real? Was this, fate?'_

* * *

Gantu steered with all his might to try to keep his ship from crashing; it was a miracle the sandwich-making trog wasn't phased that they just barrel-rolled onto a deserted part of this miserable rock with no navigation or working thrusters to get back into space!

"Well, it looks like we ain't goin' nowhere. Looks like we're working together! Sandwich?" 625 tried to offer as a peace treaty; that and he just couldn't care less, he just liked sandwiches.

"No! I don't want a sandwich!" Gantu paused. "Unless you have egg salad."

"Nope, only cheese." 625 said bluntly. "Have you not been paying attention?!"

Gantu groaned and rubbed his temples. ' _I suppose it can't get much worse than this.'_

"Ahem."

Both 625 and Gantu whipped their heads around to see who was behind them. Gantu nearly bolted up in shock at their eavesdropper.

"Hey look; another fish friend of yers sport? Or is she a lady friend?"

Gantu didn't hear the snide comment.

It had been over a year since he saw those deep dark blue eyes peering into his; and now here he was face to face with, her.

She peered over at his now wrecked ship then back at him and spared a questioning gaze over at 625; who was obliviously munching away at a crispy grilled cheese.

"Um...bad day?"

* * *

 **No Flame please! Only constructive criticism beyound this point! Thank you. ;D**


	2. Chapter 2

**Unknown Bond**

 **Chapter Two: The very Least of it**

Tohru, a gentle being with the strength and power of an army in her one finger; her village's one and only guardian. Their one and only source of prosperity and security since the day she was born.

It wasn't a very happy beginning though. The village folk explained that they were having a particularly tough year, What with the summer drought and the intense heat drying out their crops. Desperate, they all came together at their local shrine and pleaded with the gods to end their suffering and forgive them for the lack of offerings due to the bad conditions. Then, as if to answer their prayers, one of the stars in the night sky fell from the heavens and crashed on the side of the mountain, stirring the townspeople to question if this was a blessing or a warning. The priestess and a handful of the town elders went to investigate the sudden disturbance on the mountain.

That's where they found it; a strange vessel, metallic in form, battered from the impact lay before the group. The elders kept their ground as they watched the vessel crack open from the front like a caterpillar coming from its cocoon, they couldn't believe their own eyes as a large marine mammal stood on its hind legs, in tow was another being bent over in the others firm hold.

Both seemed badly wounded from the crash and were covered in gashes and familiar crimson liquid. One, however, was obviously female, judging from her large, prominent abdomen.

"Please! Help, my wife, she's about to have our child!" The male being pled in his foreign tongue. None of the townspeople knew what he was saying but the priestess understood the female being was with child, and close to birth due to her familiar maternal screams mixed with her cries of pain from her wounds. With the priestess in charge, the group frantically did everything in their power to deliver the baby.

This went on through the night till the sun was just skimming the horizon when finally the distinctive noise of a baby cry could finally be heard.

A girl.

An elder at the time had brought an old flash camera with him and wasted no time in quickly taking a picture of the happy couple with their new child. Unfortunately soon after, the new father died shortly after from wounds sustained in the crash, mother shortly after, her body finally giving out from all the strain of giving birth to her child. Before she left to the next world though, she gave a name to her baby before leaving her to the care of the strange beings she came upon: Tohru.

Since then, life in the village both simplified and complicated.

* * *

"But that doesn't explain why you're that color!" Hanna, the new current Priestess-in-training living at the shrine, said in an exasperated voice. Tohru had found her shifting around her room late one night and had pulled out her old photo taken all those years ago; it showed that both she and her parents were a dark blue color with a lighter undertone. At this moment though, Tohru was pure white with speckles covering her cheeks and ears.

"I got sick very easily as a baby; so your grandmother, the old priestess, took me somewhere deep in the mountain, restricted only for the sick or those close to death. They couldn't take my parents because of their size, but they were able to take me and when we returned, my skin had turned white."

"And what about your size?" Hanna asked, referring to Tohru's current height of seven feet where her parents were estimated at around twenty feet.

"You see this" Tohru pointed to the necklace she always wore that held a golden talisman with gems and symbols edged into the face and corners."This talisman they found in the mountain helps maintain my height so I don't hit the ceiling, but I'm still fairly tall even at human height." Tohru technically had two talismans, a black one made of obsidian and holly blue quartz, but she wore the gold one because it maintained more of the "aniu" heritage.

"So your parents just fell from the sky and a mountain bleached your skin, and grandma just happened to find some talismans that makes you grow and shrink at will?! Seems a little skeptical to me."

"You were the one who asked, and it's a touchy topic for me. It's been almost twenty-seven years since my parents death, and I still miss them."

Hanna stopped her ranting at this point; she knew every so often Tohru got like this, and all she could so was hug her till she felt better.

"Hey, if I was your mother, I'd be proud of all that you've done for our village right now."

This was true; when Tohru was only five, she brought water back into the towns river by rerouting it from a dam made by the city folk (later, they made another one away from the village so as to not unintentionally cause another drought). At age twelve, she began helping out with the villagers crops, digging deep trenches so the roots would grow deeper into the earth for nutrients. And at age eighteen, she was deemed a guardian and provider of the village, a very high status to bestow on one not from their land.

Tohru smile despite herself, she worked so hard everyday to meet the many expectations as the guardian of the river; however, lately, she had been having strange dreams of something impending, something...new.

"Are you quite satisfied with the story?"

"Hey Tohru?"

"Yes?"

"If your parents came here from the stars, does that mean there's more of you up there somewhere?"

Tohru sat up and thought for a moment. That was a very good question. Were there more like her, hiding on mountaintops and other forests in Japan?

"I don't know. That is a nice thought though." Tohru tucked in the little Priestess and retreated to her own room. She put the photo back in her usual spot under her pillow and looked out her window; she could see the dirt path that led to the cavern where the townspeople carried her parents remains and their vessel deep in the mountain. She herelf only went there once a year to maintain her parents grave markers, but never set foot in the vessel itself once. She figured it was to damaged and wouldn't be useful to helping her find out more about herself. Tohru took one last look at the night sky and went to bed.

Someday I'll find out. Then I can live up here in the mountain in peace.

* * *

 _Tohru awoke in a very large dome shaped room;along the walls were scads of different types of creatures Tohru had never seen before, all mumbling to themselves in concerning voices._

' _What's going on?'_

 _To her left, a very thin creature with a long face appeared before the room, her face very stern and serious._

" _Read the charges!" She said in an an authoritative voice._

" _Dr. Jumba Jukeba, lead scientist of alien defense headquarters. You stand before this court, accused of illegal genetic experimentation!"_

 _Tohru couldn't see who was speaking behind her, she couldn't move her head, but she did see the tiny scientist with four eyes and a giant object come from the back of the room._

 _The thin creature spoke next. "How do you pled?!"_

" _Not guilty!" The scientist said in a rather prideful manner. "My experiments are only theoretical, and completely within legal boundaries." He continued, looking more and more apprehensive as the object grew near, what was in that thing?_

" _We believe you've actually created something." The creature didn't ask, she was stating it._

" _Created something?" He replied, obviously nervous. "Ha! That would be irresponsible and unethical!" The object continued to unravel and open up to expose whatever it was he made that was so bad he had to go to court to be tried._

" _I would never, ever-"_

 _Pop! There, before this room of creatures, was a tiny blue... puppy?_

" _-make more than one." The scientist finished._

 _Tohru narrowed her eyes at the blue puppy, aside from its snarling, it actually looked kinda, cute._

" _What is that monstrosity?" The voice behind her asked, his voice laced with vain._

" _Monstrosity?! What you see before you, is the birth of a new species. I'm calling it: experiment 626." He continued with the logistics of the creature, concluding that he could only destroy and demolish anything and everything he came into contact with._

" _So it is a monster." The thin creature decreed._

" _Hey, just a little one." The scientist argued._

" _It is an affront to nature, it must be destroyed!" The voice behind her bellowed._

" _Calm yourself, Captain Gantu, perhaps it can be reasoned with." The thin creature attempted to reach the blue puppy, to find some sense of compassion or any trace that it was good, but all it gave her was some phrase Tohru didn't understand that made the whole room gag in disgust. Must've been some dirty joke._

" _I didn't teach it that!" The scientist said, a little surprised himself._

" _Place that idiot scientist under arrest!"_

" _I preferred to be called 'evil genius'!" The scientist yelled as he disappeared into the endless abyss._

" _And as for that abomination, it is a flaw of a deranged mind. It has no place among us. Captain Gantu, take him away." The thin creature said, a slight disappointment in her tone._

" _With pleasure." The voice finally walked up to Tohru's field of vision as he walked up to get the blue puppy._

 _She nearly gasped. This creature, it, it looked just like her._

* * *

Tohru woke up in a cold sweat, it was just past four and she felt like she had just done a marathon. What was all that? What did it mean? And who was that she saw next to her? She needed answers, and she knew what she was about to do the priestess would never condone, but she had no choice. She grabbed a few changes of clothes, her picture, her spare talisman, and headed off down the river. When she reached the end, she pulled out a boat she handcrafted just for her size; she didnt know if it was good for long distance, but she had to try. With one good push, she boarded the boat and headed off to sea, no map, no compass, noting but her gut feeling telling her where to go.

* * *

 **Oh boy! Ahem, like I said last chapter, no flames...please? Lol ;P**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three: Getting over it**

Three days. Three days was what it took before Tohru finally saw land.

It was one of the Hawaiian islands, Kawaii probably, or Neihow. She had just docked her boat on a private part on the island when she saw it, a giant vessel land just a couple kilometers away from her. She climbed up the side of the island to get a better look; there was that same thin creature from her dreams, and the scientist, and the blue puppy, and...and... she had to wipe the tears she didn't even know she was shedding when she saw him, Captain Gantu. She wanted so much to run over there and ask him so many questions- where was she from, why did her parents land here, what exactly was she?! But just as quickly as she saw them, the beings, including the Captain, boarded the strange vessel and headed off into the stars once again. All she could do at that point was watch wide eyes and helpless as the vessel dispeared into the sunset colored sky.

Afterwards, Tohru sat down and sighed, if she was just here a few seconds sooner... she looked at where they had landed on the beach and noticed they didn't take the blue puppy and the scientist.

Maybe, just maybe...

* * *

"So Jumba was able to fix the spaceship at your place so you can come here without sailing miles of ocean water? That's so cool, now we can visit you in Japan whenever we want to!" Lilo said excitedly.

After the incidence with the blue puppy, Tohru now knew as stitch, she was immediately welcomed as part of the little Hawaiian girl's "ohana". At first, they thought she was with the blue "dummy" Lilo liked to call him, but soon found out she was nothing like him.

At all.

After she told her story of how she came to be, even the scientist, she now knew as Jumba, was dumbstruck.

"Is very unlikely any of those gargantuans would come even remotely close to this quadrant of free will; must've had engine troubles and were forced to land on underdeveloped rock known as earth in hopes of saving unborn child. However, we are to be never knowing for sure, is just Jumba's best guess." Jumba theorized. He tried to tell as much as he could about her heritage, about her world, but it didn't amount to much. Heh, he didn't even know the name of the planet she came from, him only being concerned with himself, with his planet, and his brilliant evil scientific research.

The other alien with one eye was even less help. Hisname was pleakley, and his only opinion on her species was that her kind were known for being very headstrong and aggressive, particularly with his brief interactions with Gantu. This made him all the more surprised to see how gentle and eloquent Tohru was, he would almost classifie her as docile.

Both aliens agreed Tohru was very much opposite of her kind from the color of her hide to her mannerisms and behavior. And for that, they seemed very well relieved.

"I think she's a much better representative of her kind; she's like a big fluffy pillow you want to cuddle!" Pleakley would boast excitingly.

"Jumba also agrees with one eye, very big difference, so cute and sweet and much kinder."

This made Tohru blush the most.

When she finally got back to her village, which had only been two weeks (the scientist wasted no time fixing his ship to take her home) everyone battered her with questions, the priestess most of all.

"We could've been at the mercy of the mountain gods or a typhoon and you were somewhere else! Don't ever do something so rash and reckless in the furture again and, and, it's good to see you in good spirits again. We were all so worried." the priestess finally calmed down, all in all just glad to see her little guppy again.

"So this is village you grew up in. Huh, no wonder you have such docile behavior, no aggressive anything within miles!"

Everyone turned to the scientist with four eyes. Back to the battering of questions.

Back in current time, Tohru could still feel her embarrassment as the townspeople showed their lack of knowledge with modern technology.

"Yeah, the townspeople were very fascinated by him, even if they didn't understand a word he said. I tried to translate some of it, but let's face it, all that sciency stuff just goes right over their heads, but I'm sure the Miko would be happy to meet you."

"Miko? What's that?"

"Our town's new current priestess, her name is Hanna. Though sufficed to say, she's kind of a clutz with electronics herself and is very shy around new people."

"That's alright, I'm happy with any friend, no matter how clumsy they are with electronics."

This went on for about a year; Lilo and the gang would teleport to visit Tohru and Hanna, join them for their summer festival, and Tohru and Hanna would go visit Lilo and the gang for her hula concerts and luaus. Tohru got to learn more about the United Galactic Federation, and Hanna was just glad to see a different version of a village with no large cities. She wasn't mad, just annoyed that her first time exploring the world was at _another_ humdrum town.

Today was no different; they got permission to take a couple days off from being at the shrine to go to some beach barbecue in Kawaii. Tohru had to sit this one out and help keep house while they were gone so Hanna could practice being in crowds (she gave her ten minutes before running back home crying about how overwhelming it was). Even though both Pleakley and Jumba were going, despite their alien appearance, Tohru was still ever cautious and skeptical about going to the beach where there were crowds.

Out in the open, where everyone could see her, judge her. Critique her.

She never really noticed it until recently, but she saw she looked very much like an alien. That, combined with her outrageous height, how could she ever be accepted anywhere except for the village? And the only reason she was accepted to begin with was because they raised her? The only close exception was Lilo's family, and they were majority alien themselves.

"Tohru, we're home early!"

"Huh?" Tohru looked at the clock as it read 3:25. "Thirty minutes and forty-seven seconds. A new record." Tohru said as she helped unpack the buggy. "So what was it this time? The heat? The water to high? The crowds?"

"Not this time, ask Stitch." Hanna pointed to Stitch who was on all fours trying to quickly make his way to his and Lilo's room, on the ceiling.

"What about Stitch? Another water incident?" Tohru asked, referring to his sinking problem.

"No, he decapitated an entire buffet table with a chainsaw." Lilo piped in, holding a severed pool toy.

"Where'd he get a chainsaw at the beach?"

"Long story, he just needs some ice cream right now. Ice cream makes everything better."

"Well, I hope he feels better about, the chainsaw."

Okay, that sounded weird even for Tohru.

"You ready to go home Tohru?" Hanna asked, having more than enough of crowded beaches filled with people.

"But Hanna, we didn't even get to have a slumber party." Lilo said in a whiny voice."

"Lilo," Nani chirped in. "Hanna's home is in a place where right now, it's way past her bedtime. Besides, Tohru's got duties to her village she need to attend to in the morning."

"oh, I wish she didn't," Lilo pouted.

"I'll leave in a little bit; I'm gonna go take a walk and watch the sun set; it beautiful when you see it on the water here."

"It's just as beautiful seeing it on the mountaintop back home." Hanna said, wanting her to come with.

"I'll be one hour tops, I'll call if I'm late."

Hanna sighed heavily "Fine. See you in the morning."

Tohru walked outside and stopped when she saw Lilo's older sister at the steps, muttering something about covering damages.

"Afternoon Nani-San."

"Oh, hey Tohru. Did Hanna get home okay?"

"She just left. I'm going back right after I see the sunset."

"Ah, the Hawaiian sunset. I'd watch it every day if I had the chance."

"You know if there's anything I can do to help, I'd-"

"I know, and I feel bad whenever you ask. You've done so much for me and our Ohana, you even helped repair our house!"

"Oh it was nothing."

"Yeah, well not to me. You will never know how grateful I am to you for just being there for us, for giving Lilo a friend, for giving her so much happiness, and you don't even ask for enything in return!"

"Your acceptance into your 'ohana' will be more than enough to pacify me, that and your Hawaiian sunsets."

Nani smiled, she still couldn't believe something related to that giant monster that nearly took her sister a year ago could be so kind and generous.

Tohru said her byes and headed off to her usual spot, the spot where she first saw the ship right at the top of a waterfall when she first laid eyes on that Captain Gantu. Oh, the thoughts that danced in her head if only she was just there a few seconds sooner. If only she had another chance to see him, she wouldn't let that moment go to waist.

Oh well, so much for regrets. At least she got something from the experience, and that wasn't to bad of a thing to accomplish.

As the sun finally set into the water, Tohru headed back to the house to ready to hear another lecture from Hanna about being late for bed. Honestly, she spent way too much time up on the mountains, Tohru really needed her to start expanding her circle of people before she became a hermit.

Tohru was just in sight of Jumba and Pleakley's ship (that's where they held the teleporter) when she saw it. It was some kind of ship parked outside of Lilo's house. Tohru should've felt like this should've been no big deal, maybe it just some alien friends of Jumba or Pleakley's coming to say hello, but Tohru couldn't shake the bad feeling creeping up her spine as she inspected the craft. Her bad feeling was confirmed when she saw Jumba being hauled off aggressively into a pod capsule located in the back of the ship.

What really scared her was who she saw grabbing him.

It was him, the other one of her kind, that Captain Gantu!

This was no coincidence, Jumba himself said none of her kind would even think to look in this direction of the galaxy, not even for a pit stop. With that said, him being here must've meant there was a reason behind it all. It was a sign to Tohru that she still had a chance to learn more about her species, about where she came from. About him.

' _Could it be? Is this real? Was this, fate?'_

* * *

"Oh, come on Tohru. We' be been waiting almost two hours now." Hanna sat in the dining area of the shrine with her grandmother, their breakfast of Hanna's favorites slowly reaching room temperature.

"Hanna, it hasn't been two hours, it's only been ten minutes, be patient."

Hanna and the preistess were sitting in their usual spots, waiting for Tohru to arrive as she promised.

"But grandma, she's taking forever! It's bad enough she goes there practically every day, but now we have to wait up on her while she finishes looking at the sunset? What's wrong with the sunset here!?"

"Hanna, enough. You know why she really goes there, to console her spirit of what could've been. Besides, don't you like that she introduced you to a new friend? She's very nice too."

Hanna blushed a little, she did like hanging out with Lilo, even if they barely understood each other, but she still liked being around Tohru all the time. She just couldn't take those few minutes she was without her.

"I know you miss having her around all to yourself here in the mountain; you don't think I feel the same way? I raised that girl for the better part of her life, I feel like a mother to her. I still worry that she'll one day go there, and she won't come back. We have to respect her decisions even if we're not part of them anymore, she's a grown woman, it's hard to believe it even now."

"I know, it's just...I miss her cooking and playing with me! Now she's over there a lot and I'm over here all alone with schoolwork! It's not fair! I miss Tohru! Whaaaaa!"

"Hanna please! You're acting like a spoiled child crying for her mommy."

"But Tohru-"

Whoosh!

Both priestesses looked to see a very stunned Tohru waddling in the doorway.

"Sorry I'm late. I was, dealing with something."

"Tohru?" The old priestess questioned her very unnerved face.

"Tohru-tan!" Hanna flung herself onto Tohru, even if it was for a few minutes, it felt like an eternity for her.

"Hanna, were you fretting about me again?"

"Tohru, never leave me again, never never never!"

"Oh Hanna,"

"Ahem, you look tired. Something hold you up?"

"Um, something alright. I'll feel better after I eat something." Tohru sat with a thump and ate her lukewarm omelette. The priestess knew something was eating at her, but she was to out of it for her to really ask her right now.

All morning, Tohru had the same directionless behavior. She kept going on about the day with that twenty yard gaze in her eyes and wandering attention. Finally, the preiestess had enough when she caught her spilling a cup of tea well after it was full.

"That does it! Tohru, did something happen while you were on the island last night?!"

"Huh? No miss, I-I'm Fine. What makes you ask?"

"Your spilling your tea all over the floor."

"Oh, heh, Sorry." Tohru immediately rushed to grab a towel to soak up the remaining tea from the mat before it stained.

"I think you should go back to that island and clear your head. You clearly seemed distraught since your return; your mind seems muddled and cloudy, and you are obviously not ready to talk about it just yet."

"What?! What do you mean? I'm fine."

"Go back to the island and don't come back till I see clarity in your eyes again. I cannot stand to see you like this another second, that is final."

Tohru didn't argue at this point, she knew what was eating at her, she was just to stubborn to really deal with any of her personal problems.

She didn't want to deal, that she chickened out.

She was so excited to finally meet this individual, she completely overlooked any setbacks she might find.

Begrudgingly, Tohru returned to the island and began to walk aimlessly through the jungle brush.

' _I just don't know how I'm supposed to go about this other me. Should I have just walked up to him? Should I have written down my questions in advance? What would he think when he saw that we didn't have the same colors?! What if he rejected me completely?! Ugh, I'm so lost right now. I wish I could just talk to him, but this is big! I've searched my whole life for answers to who I am. Now that I have seen him, if I met him, would I have liked what he had to say? Should it even matter at this point in my life? No! It matters. It matters a lot to me, I have to know. Even if it's bad, it won't change who I am on the inside. I just gotta know-_

CRASH!

* * *

 **Oooh! Dun dun DUNNNN! WE'RE getting to the good part! I own nothing by the way.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four: Huh?**

Tohru inspected the craft from a safe distance, she almost couldn't contain her insurmountable amount of luck! This was it, she wasn't going to back out this time, she was going to her destiny!

Tohru steadily maneuvered past the rubble and hid behind the waterfall. She could see there was someone else with him, it kinda looked like a yellow Stitch with floppy ears. Quietly, she took off her talisman and made her way over to the two aliens.

"No! I don't want a sandwich! Unless you have, egg salad." The gargantuan said, a to worn out to even deal.

"Nope, only cheese. Have you not been paying attention?!" The yellow Stitch said in a sharp tone.

The gargantuan groaned and rubbed his temples. ' _I suppose it can't get much worse than this.'_

"Ahem."

Both beings whipped their heads around to see who was behind them. The gargantuan nearly bolted up in shock at their eavesdropper.

"Hey look; another fish friend of yers sport? Or is she a lady friend?"

Tohru peered a better look at the now wrecked ship then back at the gargantuan and spared a questioning gaze over at the yellow Stitch; who was obliviously munching away at a crispy grilled cheese.

"Um...bad day?"

"You." Gantu got up and nearly towered over Tohru. Even without her talisman on, he still had a good five or so feet on her. (In human height, it would've been inches, like a good half a foot.). He stared intensely at her striking white face; now that he was closer, he could see little speckles that were sprinkled on her cheeks and ears. If it weren't for her being an off-color, he would dare say she looked pretty.

Not out loud though. His pride would never allow it.

"Uh, yes me. I'm Tohru."

"So you're the one I saw when I left this pitiful rock."

This startled Tohru a little bit. She knew she saw the ship leave that day, but could it be possible he saw her as well? Was there a moment she was unaware of when they locked eyes when he was inside the ship?!

"Woah, back up a minute there bub." The yellow Stitch finished his sandwich and but into their conversation. "Hi, nice to meet ya, I'm 625. I'd hate to interrupt, whatever this is, but blubber buns here's got some experiment hunting to do, Yeah? These sandwiches don't make themselves." 625 waived another cheese sandwich before shoving the whole thing in his mouth.

Tohru decided in that moment she didn't like this yellow Stitch.

Gantu growled at the lack of tact on 625's part; he had this off-color girl in his mind for who knows how long- now that she's finally here, he has to go catch experiments for some talking gerbil that was just incarcerated a minute ago? Wait?

"Oh Blitznak."

Tohru looked at him questioningly.

"Brit-snack?"

* * *

"Experiment 513 activated. Primary function: Geological disruption."

"Ah, a quake-making experiment." Gantu fascinated over yet another experiment activation.

"Excellent. Bring it to me at once!" Hamsterwheel demanded over the other line.

Gantu quickly rushed to get his gear (er, the gear that wasn't lined in sandwiches) and almost made it out the door.

"Captain!"

Oh blitznack, It was her again.

"What do you want now? I'm on a very important mission."

"You're not wearing it again today?How many time do I have to say it, You have to-"

"-Wear the silly earth trinket you gave me to shrink me down to that inferior height to draw less attention to the puny earth forms."

Tohru sighed. "Close enough. Where'd you hide it this time?"

"I'm not wearing that trinket to reduce my superior height!"

"Found it!" 625 chirped in, holding the dark colored talisman Tohru gave him. "Fishface here dropped it behind the sofa cushions." He said in his usual jabbertone, tossing it to Tohru.

"I wouldn't bother giving this to you if I at least didn't care about your safety. Would you at least wear it if your going into town?"

Gantu gave his signature snarl before snatching the necklace off her and started off to the beach. What was she, his mother?!

"Man, I dunno why you even bother; I mean it's been like what? Two weeks now? That old sardine breath ain't giving you nothing." 625 gathered a bunch of random sandwiches and stuffed them in a paper bag.

"You get used to it; I have patience for decades."

"And now you're gonna follow him to make sure he wears that pretty charm you gave him, aren't ya?" 625 said as he handed her the bag.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I think you gotta crush on old trout face over there."

"No. It's not like that..."

Tohru didn't like discussing things like this with 625, he was just so insensitive.

They had already been here for two weeks and most of that time was explaining her "epidermal coloring". She couldn't even make him see reason to wearing the spare talisman she had given him; how was she going to get this large mass of stubbornness to reveal anything so much as what planet he came from?! All in all, Tohru had her work cut out for her.

Sighing heavily, Tohru followed Gantu's path to make sure he was wearing the talisman, again.

Which he wouldn't, again.

"Excuse me earthforms, but have any of you seen anything unusual since after today's quake?"

"Just you. Why you so big?"

Oh boy, here we go.

* * *

"Thank goodness you're back!" Hanna bee lined to a very tired Tohru hanging in the doorway with bags of sandwiches 625 made for her. She could tell from her friends face she didn't get that other river guardian to talk to her, again. "He didn't budge again?"

"No, not today either. I just spend two hours tailing him till he ended up chasing another 'stitch' into a rocky cavern. After that, I just decided to call it a day; I'm beginning to think this is all a big waste of my time."

Hanna nodded and took the sandwiches off her hands. "You're right. I'm sick of seeing you come back here with that tired look on your face. You should take a break for now and let's do the kagura tomorrow. How does that sound?"

For once, Hanna had a good point; she had been spending way too much time knawing at Gantu for answers these past few days, and more often than not ended up being the one interrogated for answers.

The first time wasn't so bad. She could tell he was every bit as curious about her as she was about him. But as time wore on, he began shutting her out to look for more creatures that resembled stitch and 625. He even snapped at her once to stop bugging him so he could do his job. It wasn't hurtful on Tohru's part- she knew the guy had to make a paycheck- but she could feel her window of befriending him getting narrower and narrower.

Hanna was right, she needed to take her mind off him for a while. She didn't need those answers right away. Right now, she needed rest.

"Oi Tohru! Looks like we're doing something today!"

Both Tohru and Hanna looked outside to see one of the women's association representatives huffing and puffing with two bottles of ceremonial sake in her hand for the shrine.

"Doing? Something? Sake?"

* * *

"Yo Gantu! You seen Tohru around lately?!" 625 watched as the giant shark head collapsed in his usual chair after yet another failed attempt at catching an experiment.

"What are you blabbing about?"

"She usually comes here about this time to bug me about you wearing her trinket and I haven't seen her since this morning. Did you say something to scare her away?"

"No! I'm actually glad she's not here for once, finally have a moment of peace without her poking around all the time."

"You know, she wouldn't be poking around here if you just talk to her."

"Why would I do that?! I have no relations with that off-color of my species. Surely her parents-"

Smack! Gantu sputtered as a tuna sandwich got him right in the face.

"Sport, I'm not usually like this, but that walking she-shark is the only other one of your kind on this rock, and all she's asked from you is a brief history lesson about her origin story. Poor guppy's lived here all her life and has never even seen another one of her kind until she met you. Don't you feel even a bit entitiled to cutting her a little slack? She doesn't even call you fishbreath or nothing!"

Gantu groaned at 625's rare moment of maturity. He was being a little too distant from the off-color of his species, and honestly, he'd been just as curious about her since he first saw her back when he was retired. He just didn't have time between pleasing hamsterviel and making a paycheck.

But a small part of him felt he was still obligated to his kind, she did come from a superior race of aliens.

"Alright fine. I'll indulge her for today, it's better than being lectured by that gerbil." Gantu said, turning off his communicator and leaving it on his chair. He'd listen to that gerbil's bantering when he got back.

"Great! I'll set the coordinates." 625 finished his array of sandwiches and set the transporter to Tohru's current location.

"Coordinates?!"

"She doesn't live here, blubberbutt. Her house is like on the other side of the planet. She told me she has a working transporter leftover from her parents ship while she waited for you once." 625 smirked, knowing blubberbut was so invested in experiment hunting, he didn't even bother to figure out where Tohru lived. And was about ten seconds away from just walking out the door to see her.

"Oh Blitznack." Gantu hesitantly entered the transporter and begrudgingly waited as 625 activated the machine.

"Don't forget your trinket." 625 tossed it to Gantu just before he squeezed into the glass container and headed who knows where.

After a few seconds of the usual green and yellow light, Gantu's eyes recovered from the spotty vision he usually got to see he was in some sort of abandoned ship, or what was left of it. The walls and ceiling were all but gone, revealing the rocky cavern it was currently occupying. He could tell from the transporter it had seen better days and most of the working parts seemed added onto from another working ship, probably that idiot scientist Jumba.

What really caught his attention was this huge rock facing the exit and only source of light; before it were two dirt mounds edged with flowers that spread into a path and decorating the stone.

Gantu got a slight chill as he inspected the stone, it felt like he was in somebody's tomb. Shaking it off, he put on the trinket Tohru gave him, shrinking his height, and pressed on towards the exit.

The outside was way different. He caught Japan on a day where the weather wasn't melting hot and there was a pleasant breeze that picked up the scent of the mountain trees, making Gantu actually stop for a second to take in the rare feeling of peace he hadn't felt in a good while.

He'd never admit it out loud, but earth sure did have some nice scenery.

He walked down what he could guess was some dirt path Tohru must've paved herself leading to some kind of old building.

Was this where she lived? It had a wall with wooden bookmarks that had strange designs painted on them, a well that flowed to a wooden sink, and a shed just off to the side of the building. Gantu couldn't tell what the markings on the archway said, so he just racked it up to maybe some design preference.

Inside, Gantu could hear a whiny voice coming from inside followed by a familiar voice speaking in a foreign tongue. Thanks to the talisman Tohru gave him, he was able to catch what they were saying.

"Uh, hello?" Gantu peered in through the open door to see Tohru, human size, hoisting up a tiny earth girl that looked like the one 626 usually hung out with, trying to put up drapes along the room. The only difference was her skin tone and height.

"Gantu?" Tohru carefully looked over her shoulder and saw it was indeed the former captain, and he was wearing the talisman!

" _Tohru, is this the big dummy who won't tell you about your planet heritage?"_

" _Quiet Hanna, he's right there."_

" _But he cant understand us, he's not wearing the talisman you gave him."_ Hanna couldn't see him in her peripheral vision as she finished putting up the drapes and proceeded to put out the seat cushions.

"Uh, _Yes he is."_ Tohru brushed off her current Miko garb and properly invited Gantu inside.

"What brings you here?"

"Am I interrupting something?" Gantu asked.

Tohru stressfully ran her hand down her face and sighed. "Apparently our Miko decided to pull up some kind of ceremony and forgot to tell us before going on her hot spring cure thingy."

"A ceremony?"

"As priestess and guardian of this village, we perform a wide variety of ceremonies and kaguras throughout the year. We have coming of age ceremonies, summer and winter purification's, rituals to bring prosperity to the crops for a good harvest, you know, the basics."

"What are you wearing?" Gantu asked, noting her white and blue robes.

"These are my official Miko garbs. I wear them to represent my authority as river guardian."

"As a what?"

" _Tohru-San, help me with the alter, it's heavy!"_ Hanna grunted as she attempted to push the alter up toward the front platform.

" _Here, let me do that;_ Gantu, can you help me for just a sec?"

Gantu groaned but saw no harm in it and proceeded to place the table with the paper bouquet on the raise floor. Tohru added the liquor on the alter and eyed it for a bit.

"It seems a bit empty with just the bouquet and the sake." Tohru said in English.

Hanna didn't catch what she said and Repeated the phrase in Japanese. _"It looks pretty empty,"_ she looked around and rushed to the kitchen in the back. _"It can't be helped, I'll_ _put out some snacks."_ Hanna concluded, putting out rice crackers.

" _Don't do that, we'll get in trouble."_

" _But we gotta put something on it. If only we had some anchient artifacts or jewelry to put on it."_

"Hey Gantu, any ideas on what to put on the alter?"

"Don't ask me, I don't even know what this is all about."

"Same here. I can't even put my talisman on it, my head'll hit the ceiling for sure."

" _I'm back!"_ The village representative skipped to the alter and stopped. _"Oh, this isn't right."_

" _I know, we're trying to find a way to make it look less empty."_

" _No, not that. It's not a ceremony for the mountain gods."_

" _Huh?"_

The representative then proceeded to move the alter to the front of the platform with the help of Tohru.

" _The alter goes here,"_ She then ushered Tohru onto the platform for demonstration. _"And Tohru sits here before the altar."_

" _So you found what ritual we're doing today?"_ Tohru asked, a little apprehensive about sitting on the platform where the alter usually goes.

" _Yeah, I managed to find a book in the Miko's private room and its probably this: kikase. It's basically you reciting a prayer as a messenger of the gods; it's also a display of your presence among the village folks as if you were a river spirit sent by the gods on their behalf. According to the records, the last ceremony was held about twenty years ago on your behalf when you first came to our village by the priestess."_

" _Why would the priestess dig up something like that?!"_

" _I dunno, she must've thought we needed it now."_

 _Tohru looked to Hanna as she took a spot on the floor and layer back on the wall with her arms behind her head._

 _Tohru frowned knowing she suddenly realized she didn't have to do much on her part as priestess-in training._

" _Wait, shouldn't the current priestess talk along with me?!"_ Tohru pleaded, not wanting all this to be on her.

" _I don't see anything about that in the records, the only reason for last time was because you were a baby."_

" _But wouldn't it look more regal if she participated!?"_

Everyone froze as the townspeople began arriving up the path. Gantu, pulling a seat behind the drapes, kept quiet as he too was curious about what to make of all this. That, and he really wanted to see Tohru speak to the puny earthforms as if she were their goddess; he encouraged any opportunity for his species to be worshipped by others, even if she was an off-color.

" _Whoops, look at the time. Just be flexible and work the situation in your favor."_

" _Uh, wait. What am I supposed to talk about on the platform? You have cuecards or something right?"_

" _Uh...improvise!"_

Tohru facepalmed as she registered she didn't have enough time to research anything else.

Hanna smiled with a much to relaxed look on her face as she handed Tohru her headband.

" _Good luck."_

Tohru gave her a nod and headed out the side door to wait for everyone to get situated.

"Hey Tohru,"

Tohru flinched a little, not noticing Gantu sitting behind the drapes. He looked at her before hesitantly putting a firm hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah?"

"Good luck." He muttered, looking awayas he did.

Tohru blushed, was he finally being nice to her?

The representative banged the ceremonial drum to cue Tohru it was time. She took a deep breath and slowly walked up to the platform and took a seat.

"Hello and thank you all fortunate to come to this gathering for me. With your good graces, I, your river guardian would like to give a speech today, and I hope you will listen well. It has been quite sometime since I had become lead representative of Sengen, Goddess and protector of Mount Fujiyama."

She was a What? Gantu didn't quite catch that mouthful of words she just said, but it sounded like a big deal.

Tohru paused as the fellow representative made a note to her to act more scary, as if she were threatening them. She frowned at this because she didn't like the idea of being a scary god, she was scary-looking enough with her natural height.

"However, this town I-is very depentant of both my and the Miko's generous efforts to maintain the peace and prosperity such an ungrateful town."

Gantu smiled besides himself, this was finally gettting good.

Hanna peeped through and handed Tohru some cue cards as she went.

"S-so never forget that you are always at the mercy of our whims and desires for this humdrum town to keep your gratitude and appreciation of our generous yet tedious tasks we do for you day in and day out- N-no, that's not it!" Tohru ripped the cue cards and stood up straight.

"What I really want to say is this: due to recent technological advances in transportation and appliances, you are now able to obtain medicine, food, even furniture through the use of the internet without the stress of leaving your hometown."

Where was she going with this?

"That said, our village is small, we strive everyday to expand the number and economic growth of our town so that this wonderful place is not forgotten by the passage of time. I encourage all of you, especially the old folk to use these resources so we can achieve this goal. So I implore all of you to forget your ideas of going tothe big city that lacks substance. The truth is, we owe it to technology for us being able enjoy the simple life here in the village you adore so much. Thank you for listening."

Gantu stared at Tohru, a blank look on his face. It wasn't very intimidating at the end, but she seemed to get her surprisingly good point across; the group of old folk applauded Tohru for her efforts while the children, who were fidgeting before, cheered for the very engaging speech.

As everyone left for the reception in the town, Tohru caught word that not even the townsfolk knew what today's ritual was about, but that Tohru did a very good job keeping everyone's attention.

She smiled, managing to endure the somewhat akward ritual.

"I guess that speech wasn't to horrible. You should've continued threatening them in my opinion. Some of the kids looked a litttle scared." Gantu chuckled.

"Right. Uh, so you came here for something?"

"Hmm? Oh yeah," Gantu pulled out an orange disk and pressed some buttons activating it. "I thought I'd start with showing you the United Galactic Federation. It's not exactly our planet, but it holds an important role in our universe. I thought you might find it interesting."

Tohru was speechless, he was meeting her halfway. Sure, it wasn't her home planet(that and Pleakley kinda already told her this while telling her all about his position as expert on Earth), but it was a step in the right direction. She was finally breaking down the wall.

"I would be honored to hear about this Federation. I'll show you some of my roles in the village to, if your interested! Maybe you could even participate in the next ritual!"

Gantu cringed a little, not wanting to invest so much of his time in another primitive town when Hamsterviel was still on him about catching experiments. "One step at a time."

* * *

 **Wow, that took a while to put together. Hope to hear your constructive feedback.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five: New Approach**

Gantu ran through the primitive town as he chased down a hair eating experiment before losing it to an exiting bus.

"Ugh, hair ball! I am Gantu! Captain, ahem former, of the galactic alliance, conquerer of the pescimerous malicia and Vangoid commander of Blackoom ops. You shall not escape me!" Gantu calmed down from his statement and noticed the little earth hatchlings looking at him.

"I mean, I, missed my bus." He tried to restate. The kids ran screaming anyway, leaving Gantu standing in a premature rain. "Oh Blitznack." He stood for a minute, slightly embarrassed from making such a grandiose statement about himself when he noticed the rain suddenly stopped drizzling on him. He turned to see Tohru standing behind him, holding a Japanese parasol over him.

"Evening Gantu."

"I know, I'm not wearing the talisman again." Gantu pulled out the talismon and groaned as it shrunk him the usual minuscule height. Tohru did the same and cleared her throat indicating she had a question.

"So what is a Vangoid commander?"

"You heard all that?"

"I didn't want to interrupt."

"It doesn't matter. Right now, I'm just another bounty hunter that lost yet another experiment. And another paycheck."

"Oh. So you got time right now to help me out with something?"

"What something?" Gantu asked tactfully. Ever since he made that trip to Tohru's "shrine" as she put it, she had been bugging him more about coming over to help her out with stuff. Of course, she was respectful to his work of catching experiments, so she wasn't being anymore annoying than he could tolerate, but still kinda annoying.

"I need help redirecting a dam. The village isn't getting any water!"

"Huh?"

"Because we are such a small town, we don't show up on most maps. Associations from water companies are constantly damming up the river on both sides of the village, either causing droughts or floods."

"What you want me to do about it?"

"There are strengths in numbers. I think if they see two angry gods being disrespected, they'll be less likely to do it again and maybe even spread the word."

Gantu pinched the area between his eyes and thought about it. It wasn't a very demanding favor, and lately she was being more careful to only call him over if she felt it was either in his best interest or if he had nothing better to do, and he wasn't really doing anything right now...

"Tell you what, you help me capture an experiment, and I'll owe you a favor."

Tohru grinned mischievously "I thought you'd say that..."

* * *

"Gantu, What is the meaning of calling me oh so very late in the middle of my beauty sleep?!" Hamsterviel begrudgingly took out the pacifier and quickly hid it from view and began removing his hair curlers.

"Well sir, it's actually not me who wants an audience with you,"

Tohru stepped up to the viewing screen and held out a clear jar filled with multi-colored orbs.

"It, It can't be. You caught all these experiments?!"

"Yep, in less than two hours."

"Impressive. Give them to me!" Hamsterviel stretched out his hands to the pale fish monster, excited about finally getting not one, but dozens of experiments.

Tohru narrowed her eyes at the rodent and lowered the jar out of view.

"What are you waiting for? Give them to me!"

"I want triple what you pay your lackey, for _each_ experiment pod. There's twenty-eight in this jar, just to give you a rough estimate."

The gerbil-like creature sputtered in shock at the off-colored female of Gantu's species. He had the money, of course, but he wasn't nearly prepared to spend that much where he only had to pay Gantu so little.

"Gantu, capture the experiments, I refuse to pay such a price for what I can pay less from you!"

"Then I want triple what you were going to pay her." Gantu said in a cool tone, relishing in Hamsterviel's angry squeaks.

"Oh fine! I will pay your ridiculous price, right after you hand them over."

"Nah-Uh. I want payment, in advance. And since I don't have a card account, I want it sent to Gantu's account, I'll fight him over wiring it to me later."

"You cheeky pale female-"

"Going once," Tohru held out the jar menacingly, as if she were about to toss them.

"You wouldn't dare, you vexing, irritating, blubbery-"

"Going twice!" Tohru activated the ship's door, leading to the nearby river. Hamsterviel stopped and trembled a little bit; if those pods got wet, the little earth girl and 626 would surely catch them and render them useless to him.

"Okay okay! I'll send you the money! Look, I'm sending the money..."

"And make sure you can't take it back once you get your precious experiments!" Tohru added.

He flinched as he did what she said and transferred the whopping bounty to Gantu's account.

He pulled up his account to ensure it was all there before Tohru placed the jar into the transporter and watched as it disappeared with the green and yellow lights.

Hamsterviel giggles like a maniac as he held the jar in his paws. Oh, it took some teeth pulling, but he finally had, marbles? He inspected the contents in the jar and realized she had sent him marbles painted to look like experiment pods, marbles he just paid a fortune for!

"Gantu!"

"Okay, bye." Tohru immediately hung up and disconnected the communication wires.

"Wow, that was sneaky." 625 said in awe, chowing down on a pastrami sandwich.

"I must say, I'd never would've thought to try that for pay." Gantu noted, eying the bonus he just got unwilling from hamsterviel.

"Of course you couldn't be the one to take the risk, you still need a consistent paycheck. No offense."

"None taken. Even when I did bring an experiment, he still barely paid me. I'm surprised I've been able to live like this. So yeah, Uh, ahem, thank you."

"Aw, is whittle Gantu blushing?" 625 said in his snarky tone. Gantu waved a fist at him and he just brushed it off as an empty threat.

"Now about that dam..."

* * *

Tohru smiled as she once again made her way to the transporter. Lately, she had been making great progress with Gantu and was really getting him to open up to her. Well, at the very least he wasn't acting vile and bitter to her like he was with 625 and Stitch.

Lilo and Stitch were also grateful she was keeping Gantu preoccupied while they caught all the experiments and found their one true place. Though they were a little worried she might turn on them.

"What If he points a laser at you and forces you to work with him to catch experiments?" Lilo and Stitch had just returned from another experiment hunt and had caught a cute pink experiment with an adorable pair of puppy eyes.

"I've already been over this; both me and Gantu agreed I'm considered neutral party in terms of experiments. Besides, old gerbilwheel doesn't trust me with giving him experiments since that marble incident."

"I still cannot be believing that you deceived highly intelligent lab assistant to giving you large bounty for multi-colored recreation orbs." Jumba said, pulling up little girl and 626's latest experiment capture.

"I believe it. Tohru's the best!" Lilo High-fived Tohru while Stitch gave her a slobbery kiss on the cheek.

"So what's this new experiment? He sure is cute." Tohru asked, noticing the little puffball of adorableness nuzzling in her lap.

"Yes, 254 is for designed to be very irresistible." Jumba agreed , patting the cute little ball of plush with his massive hand. Stitch narrowed his eyes at his new cousin, not liking all the attention he was getting.

"Well I think he's absolutely precious, not at all like the little monster." Pleakley said, also taken in by the experiments adorable cuteness.

Stitch snarled at the "litttle monster" remark, he was cute! Very cute, and fluffy!

"Is best not becoming attached; it may look harmless, but in reality, is a ticking stinkbomb."

"A stinkbomb, this little guy?"

"Yes, very soon, will emit odor so noxious, will make forty square mile area uninhabitable for decades!" Jumba cackled evilly. "But yes, as cute as carmine fasciner."

"But he smells okay now." Pleakley noted.

"254 is programmed to start with stinking forty-two hours after activation, will allow to infiltrate target. The problem is, we have no way of knowing when it was activated."

"Is the smell really that bad?"

Jumba chuckled evilly "Trust me, will have you losing many lunches, is disgusting stench."

Lilo eyed the experiment and kept in mind what this experiment meant for her and her relationship with the local girls. "Well, that's what I'm naming him: Mr. Stenchy. And I don't care how much he reeks, I'm keeping him."

Stitch screamed into a pillow in exasperation, he hated his new cousin! He was getting all of Lilo's attention!

Tohru rolled her eyes at Lilo's declaration. There was no way her sister would let her keep the plushy thing, no matter how cute he looked. Plus, she only wanted the little guy because she was invited to that mean girl's tea party. Surely Hanna and some of the local girls in her village could throw a better tea party.

Oh, that's it!

"Say, Lilo, why don't you ask Nani if you could come with me to the shrine today. We're having a little tea party of our own, with much tastier sweets and treats than that mean red-haired girl. We can even show you some of our Japanese games. It sure has been a while since you last seen her."

"That sounds like fun, we can teach Hanna all about vampires and werewolves, right Stitch?"

Stitch perked up at the sound of seeing Hanna, she always gave him those crunchy rice cookies to munch on whenever he got near her.

"Wait, can we bring Mr. Stenchy?"

"Um, maybe not. We don't know when he was activated, and I don't want him accidentally going off at the shrine."

Lilo sighed and left Mr. Stenchy in the care of Jumba, who was preparing rocket for to send him away in. "Stitch, you better stay with Mr stenchy, we don't want the big dummy to get his hands on him."

Stitch groaned as his cousin toddled in circles around him to get his attention. This was going to be a long day.

Tohru quickly texted the women's association to go shopping and start decorating the shrine, there was going to be a very special guest coming to the shrine.

* * *

Because of the time difference, Tohru had to talk Lilo's older sister to letting her leave immediately so that they would return just before the sun went down in Kawaii.

Lilo had been to the shrine a number of times in the past, usually when she wasn't in school or on holidays.

Today was special though, the women's association had dressed up the main shrine room to look extra special with lanterns and paper balloons and paper cranes hanging from the ceiling.

Hanna, in the rush of things, spent most of their shrine offerings on mooncakes, mochiko, and a whole bunch of Japanese sweets that'd rot your teeth out.

Tohru would have to have a talk with her later about her snacking problem.

"Wow! It looks like a luau in here!" Lilo took a seat next to Hanna at their nishikawa (Japanese reversible cloth table with Kota Stu) as Hanna poured out the tea. Tohru took this as her cue to get the women's association to another room while the girls had their little tea party.

"So how is blue dog? I hear he have family now." Hanna loosely spoke in her shaky English. Tohru had an upper hand at translating because of her talisman and had been teaching her a little bit since they met Lilo. Well, teaching her as best she could with her restless nature.

"He does, Stitch has got over six hundred cousins now!"

Hanna gave a surprised look of excitement as she handed Lilo a couple of mooncakes.

"That sound very interesting. You make friends with not nice carrot hair girl yet?"

Lilo giggled when Hanna called Mertile that, her efforts to speak English were hilarious.

"Kind of, she invited me to the FHGH tea party, but Tohru said to come here and have a tea party with you."

"My tea party better, have better snacks." Hanna held out a red bean dumpling as she proceeded to cram almost the whole thing in her mouth.

Lilo giggled as took a sip of her tea. She was really glad she got to go to Hanna's tea party instead.

At first, when they first met, she was afraid she couldn't be friends with her because they were so different, they even spoke different languages. It was even scarier one time when they were at the beach and they came across Mertile, Yuki, Theresa, and Elena. Hanna didn't like the way the red haired girl acted around Lilo; she didn't know what they were saying, but she could tell the red hair girl was saying something that made Lilo sad. When she tugged at Hanna to come with her, she accidentally pushed her into a mud puddle, making her cry something angrily and walk off in a huff.

"You want more fruit drops?" Hanna held out some of those hard candy pellets that look like fruit and handed them to Lilo. She happily took the candy and popped them in one by one in her mouth.

Lilo was usually picky about food, especially if it was food or snacks she had never had before, but if Hanna liked them, she'd at least give them a try. A lot of the stuff Hanna gave her to try were really good; except for that one time they tried some kind of big spiky fruit that smelled really bad. She and Hanna regretted eating that.

Hanna herself was enjoying her time with Lilo; normally Tohru was either to tired or to busy to play with her anymore, and she was so shy around kids her age.

With Lilo, she was less pressured because of their eight-twelve age difference.

"Hey, when we finish, wanna play werewolf kick the can?"

"I wanna be the vampire this time!" Lilo and Hanna finished their tea and headed outside to play their game they invented together.

In the other room, Tohru and the women's association peered over at the sight of the two friends playing together.

"It was lucky you found Lilo to play with our new priestess, we were beginning to think she'd never make any friends." The elders said as they began cleaning up.

"Yes, that Hawaiian girl is a very good influence on her; I don't think I've ever seen Hanna so lively."

"No, she's lively around Tohru."

"Yeah, but we live together. It's not the same. We have more of a sisterly relationship. Also, I'm busy all the time with my duties as the river guardian, I can't even remember the last time I had a minute just to myself."

"By the way, how's that dam problem coming along?"

"Actually, I finished way faster than the last time." Tohru said a little impressed with herself. She had to take a mental note to find a more permanent solution for their constant dam issues.

Darn city folk.

"Oooh, is because of that, new guy?" An elder said slyly.

Tohru froze as she knew exactly who they were talking about.

"Uh, Ah, new guy?"

"Yeah, the _new_ guy." The elder said in a cocky tone.

"Oh, stop. We all know about Tohru-San's new boyfriend."

"Boyfriend?!" Tohru took this as her cue to flee. "Oh my, would you look at the time, I think I should go ahead and bring Lilo back to Kokowa town, um, girls!?"

The two girls stopped their game and groaned as the four hours they were together only felt like twenty minutes.

"Oh come on Tohru, one more game, best out of seven!" Hanna pleaded with Lilo joining in their pleading stares.

Tohru smiled despite herself. "Oh! Can those eyes get any bigger." She sighed heavily, she was gonna regret this in a minute. "One more game."

The girls cheered and quickly restarted their game.

"Sisterly Huh? Feels more like your their mother to me." One of the elders said bluntly.

Tohru ran her hand down her face, Yep, she could feel the rue coming on already.

* * *

"Donicachi?"

Meanwhile, back on Kawaii, Stitch was just having a grand ol time getting more and more irritated with his new cousin. Even with no one to coddle and coo at him, he still had a way to get on Stitch's nerves by pestering him with little "peace offerings".

'Bet he just wants me to start cooing at him to. Oh, look how cute and pink you are- blech! Nope, not this experiment!' Stitch finally had enough when "Mr. Stenchy" tried to give him a lollipop. Stitch had to give the pink plush of puke points for persistence, he certainly had a one-trackier mind than his when he had his mind of bothering someone.

He took the lollipop and gave it a good slobbery lick before sticking the pink peat onto it for better grip on him; heaven forbid if he held him, probably would just try to snuggle him or hug him.

Stitch carried him to the kitchen and playfully bounced around a couple of ideas to deal with his new "cousin". He settled for staying him in the pantry so he wouldn't have to explain to Lilo why he decided to make a milkshake out of his cousin. He did take a little pleasure in shoving him into the raviolis and slamming the door in his face.

Now where did they put the soda?

* * *

Tohru transported Lilo back to Kawaii, Hanna tagging along for another one of their sleepovers, even though it was a school day for her.

"Stitch, we're home." All three girls giggled in unison. Lilo gasped as she was the first to notice the messed up roof and the blasted furniture.

Tohru scowled as she immediately knew who did this and began marching over to the waterfall to give him a piece of her mind.

All the while, she didn't take notice of her talisman as it seemed to glow a soft blue, seeming to grow steadily stronger the more she clung to her present feeling.

* * *

 **I know, not my best chapter after about a good ten days of slack. But will hop back on the horse with more precision, right now, just filler. Please don't kill me, lol.**


End file.
